Job description
Do you want to gain new skills in a setting you haven’t considered before?
If this sounds like you, you may be interested in a voluntary role which provides insight into a world that few people see, where you’ll be able to use, and add to, your skills and experience. You could join our team of ordinary people doing an extraordinary role: independently monitoring prisons and places of immigration detention across the country.
We are looking for people who share our values and commitment and are keen to give back to their community. A good listener, you will always act with integrity, be committed to equality, diversity and inclusion, be able to analyse observed events and behaviour, make decisions and apply common sense. You will also need to work within a team, be a good communicator and have some basic computer skills.
You will have unrestricted access to the prison, talk to prisoners in confidence, monitor day-to-day activity and report back on whether people are being treated fairly and humanely and being given the support they need to turn their lives around.
We are looking for people with a non-judgemental and open-minded approach, who can commit to making 2-3 visits a month, including a monthly Board meeting.
Although this is an unpaid role, we pay travel and subsistence expenses, childcare or carer costs and, in certain circumstances, contributions towards loss of earnings.
As one member says: “It could be the most rewarding thing you have ever done, and you can make a real difference to prison life. I was unemployed when I started volunteering and didn’t know how I would be able to re-enter the workplace after being out of work for so long. The experience and confidence I gained on the Board enabled me to get paid employment, which I now do alongside my volunteer role.”
If you are interested in being our eyes on the inside, a voice on the outside, then book onto our next virtual open evening to find out more about the role and hear from some of our existing volunteers from both the prison and immigration detention estates.